One of your supervisors has just been accused of sexual harassment. Rather than spend the money to litigate the case, your company decides to settle. Let’s go through the standard provisions:
Ah, not so fast on that last one if your business is in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Continue reading
Back in 2016, Kathleen M. Jungclaus was the full-time Vice President of Human Resources for a Pennsylvania continuing care retirement community. She had worked for the company since 2007.
On July 24, 2016, Ms. Junclaus went on her personal Twitter page and tweeted: “@realDonaldTrump I am the VP of HR in a comp outside of philly [sic] an informal survey of our employees shows 100% AA employees voting Trump!”
A little over two months later, Ms. Junclaus found herself unemployed and applying for benefits. Continue reading
When a company has an employee who is approved for leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act, sometimes that employer get nervous about parsing FMLA-qualifying absences from other sick days that have nothing whatsoever to do with the employee’s underlying serious health condition. The end result is an employee who gets not only FMLA leave but extra leave that exceeds his or her bank of time off.
Those employers, well, they’re shook!
Let’s see how one employer handled it the right way.
Continue reading
On the day before Halloween, a Pennsylvania federal court (here) denied an employer’s attempt to have a religious-accommodation case dismissed early.
This isn’t your run of the mill religious-accommodation case. Continue reading
***pops open can of Haterade***
Continue reading
This event has been approved for 1.25 SHRM HR credits. Approvals for HRCI and CLE to follow shortly.
If an employer violates the Fair Labor Standards Act, like by not paying overtime, the plaintiff(s) can generally recover two years of unpaid overtime for the two years preceding the lawsuit. Those plaintiffs may also recover liquidated damages equal to the unpaid overtime.
So, if an employer owes $100 in overtime, the total bill with liquidated damages would be $200.
However, if the employer willfully violates the FLSA, then the damages increase. That’s because the lookback period for a willful violation becomes three years.
But, what makes a violation willful? Yesterday, the Third Circuit helped answer that question. Continue reading
Not even close to that fun.
No, it’s about a guy who got fired after his employer concluded that he had gained unauthorized access to its electronic files. It just so happens that the plaintiff accessed those files to assist his employer in defending two discrimination actions that other employees had pending against the employer. Either way, because of the firing, the plaintiff alleged retaliation.
How can firing an employee who is trying to help his employer with discrimination claims be considered retaliatory? See, e.g., the headline of today’s blog post.
I’ll explain. Continue reading
Actually, pretty much everyone. Continue reading
Just before the Labor Day weekend, I blogged here about an Americans with Disabilities Act complaint filed in federal court by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that should have employers scrutinizing their leave policies and procedures.
Today, I’ve got news of another EEOC lawsuit filed in my backyard in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. As I explain below, this one will have you reaching for a different leave policy — parental leave — to ensure no that there’s no hatin’ on the fellas. Continue reading
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